It started with a gloriously hopeful lie, but the truth is that, in a heavy defeat to Brentford, Luton were undone by familiar things – ruthless, top drawer finishing and, far more damagingly, themselves.
Twenty-four hours earlier, boss Rob Edwards ruled out returns for the injured Sambi Lokonga and Gabriel Osho, but at 2pm it was revealed that he’d pulled a Keyser Söze-style switcheroo as the expected threadbare 11 was bolstered by both them and Teden Mengi. Issa Kabore also returned from his one match exile against parent club Manchester City, only to get injured and depart after 35 minutes. Yet more problems.
No doubt, these last four months have been the year of the injury, which has meant playing for most of 2024 with a half a squad. So, having only narrowly lost to the big boys of the Premier League with the proverbial square pegs in round holes, Luton’s was a line-up approaching a full strength side.
But rather than the expected thriller, it turned into a horror show, just when a win would have lifted the Hatters out of the bottom three. If there has ever been a more fitting tagline for the movie that has been Luton’s season, it would be ‘it’s the hope that kills you’.
“(It was) a really difficult day,” said Edwards, adding: “As good as Brentford were I thought we were equally as bad.
“I feel, just reviewing the goals, looking at them now, because I haven’t been able to review the whole game, I felt that we lacked an urgency and an intensity that we haven’t lacked all season long, especially in our defensive work.
“That’s as a team, not just defenders. The first goal is a good example of that, a quick turnover, we don’t close gaps, don’t quite see it quick enough and they’re a bit sharper on to things. A first contact from a corner for the third goal.
“A really disappointing day and it’s hard to put my finger on it right now.
“We had our moments when the game was in the balance, we did. Change had a great chance, Alfie had one and we got into good positions, but we weren’t ruthless enough at one end and then we got punished.
“And then, for the first time this season, looked like we showed a lack of belief in that second half. That’s obviously something that we’ve got to snap out of very quickly.”
Few would have had Brentford down as the top-flight team that Town would struggle so comprehensively against, home and away. And just when they needed to avenge an away-day performance, this was Town’s worst of the season.
It was matched by a nervous and timid atmosphere inside Kenilworth Road which wasn’t so much punctured as utterly eviscerated when Yoane Wissa lashed into the top corer from 25 yards. It was a stunning strike.
Worse was to come, however most fans stayed until the end and still cheered off their battered men, though Edwards walked around the pitch with his hand raised apologetically to the terraces.
“I was apologising, rightly so,” he said. “It’s not good enough. It’s not been often I’ve had to say that, if at all really, this year. But today, I shoulder it. I’m the manager and I’ve got to hold my hand up in that moment.”
Those regrets will be myriad but considering there was a full complement of centre halves, the next three goals were as poor as possible. More gifts in a campaign of almost unwavering generosity.
Wissa’s second, in first half injury time, was the killer. Reece Burke, who had been ill in the week, flicked at a cross and it fell for the forward who tapped in, almost in slow motion. Or perhaps that was just the realisation that this was a bad situation that was most excruciatingly not going to script.
Ethan Pinnock put the game beyond Luton with a towering header from a corner just after the hour.
Keane Lewis-Potter, who had gone close before, then headed in at the back post with seemingly not a defender in sight. And to complete the misery, substitute Kevin Schade blasted into an empty net after the Bees cut Luton open, orchestrated by the impressive Bryan Mbeumo.
Having barely threatened Mark Flekken, bar a first half save from Alfie Doughty, Town were heading for their heaviest defeat of the season, but a late Luke Berry consolation ensured a second straight 5-1 defeat, which still isn’t much of an end credit.
Against Manchester City last week, with a depleted team, it was understandable, though Town commendably kept the champions out doggedly for just over an hour.
But with as strong a side as they’ve been able to field for months, to have suffered the same fate against Brentford, who themselves weren’t clear of the relegation danger, was chastening.
It’s a funny old game that sometimes makes absolutely no sense.
“We know the importance of the game. To lose it in that manner is just desperately disappointing for us right now,” said Edwards.
And alongside the selection mind games proffered in his pre-match press conference, which were greeted with so much positivity before kick-off, Edwards had also been clear that this was not a must-win, because failure to do so would not result in relegation.
Down but not outis the usual mantra for such moments, though with four games remaining the sinking feeling has never felt so close.
It will require something of a Hollywood ending to save their season from here. If they do it then, like the cult film character of Keyser Söze, it will be the greatest trick that Edwards has ever pulled. But then, survival was always going to be like that.
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